In the category of “too smart for your own good,” the nominees are…

According to an Associated Press news release, Iowa Representative Bill Dix of Shell Rock has introduced a bill which would make it illegal for Iowans to read while driving.

Seriously. And it’s about time, too.

Apparently, the most wicked smart state in the union can’t get its citizens to put down the reading material long enough to go from point A to point B.

If you have to have a problem, this is the one to have.

For years, Iowans have set the educational standard for the entire country — and now we know how.

A combination of lovely- though-monotonous scenery, well-maintained roads and easy access to a wide variety of stimulating reading material has made Iowa a state with one of the highest number of accidents caused by people who drive literate.

Reading and driving or “road literacy” is a growing problem among well-educated populations, and there ARE consequences.

Every year, people with just enough smarts to be dangerous get behind the wheel with a little something to pass the time.

As a result, they fail to stop when out of road, drive into the backs of semis or careen straight into ditches.

The need for this law does not come out of the blue.

It comes FROM the blue.

The boys in blue.

State police have noticed that the number of incidents of driving while under the influence of a page-turner has increased over the years, and they have called upon state lawmakers to outlaw road literacy.

People, we have all been in a situation where a magazine article, a comic book, a treatise on 19th century French erotica or even just the back of a cereal box were too good to put down.

But buddy, when you get behind the wheel of a car on our roads, you better show some restraint and common sense.

The road is no place for reading.

And remember, if you’re out with friends getting a little punchy after a spirited night at the book club discussing the relative merits of post-modernist/deconstructionist novelists, don’t let them drive.